Friday, May 6, 2016

Don't waste your life!

In a present day situation, two young men, Alex Mirandette, 22, and his
brother Erik, 18 years old, were so filled with the love of Christ, that they
set out on a very risky motorcycle adventure. They would start at the very
southern tip of Africa and travel north more than 8,000 miles, all the way to
Egypt.

The brothers' trip was not just a sightseeing
expedition. They would be sharing Christ and God's love
with the poorest of the poor. They travelled through eleven
countries, many with unstable governments. They encountered two civil wars and
five groups of rebels. They slept in mud-and-thatch huts, eating what little
was available, in order to tell people about Jesus.

The trip took four months. Finally reaching Egypt,
they were in an open market when a terrorist's bomb filled with nails,
exploded. When the smoke cleared, Erik remembers lying in a daze, trying to
pull out hundreds of nails that had penetrated his body. Some had been driven
into his bones. Both Erik and Alex were taken to a hospital in Cairo, where
later that day, Alex died.

Erik has since endured some 30 surgeries to remove
nails, reconstruct his disfigured shoulder and arm, and to repair his seriously
injured legs.

In spite of his suffering and the loss of his
brother, Erik has chosen to magnify
God. He has chosen to forgive those involved. In televised programs which were
heard throughout the Arab world, Erik was telling his story and saying, "I forgive those who did this harm to me." The
love of Christ expressed like this is sure to touch the hearts of thousands of
people in that region.

Was Alex’s life wasted? No it was not. Only God knows how many
people will be in heaven someday as a result of the love and testimony of Alex
and Erik. Jim Elliot, one of the five young missionaries who were martyred in
Ecuador, said, “A man is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain
that which he cannot lose.”